I know I say this a lot, but I'm pretty good about making sure it's only about awesome people like Aaron Paul or Tina from Bob's Burgers...Michelle Obama is my spirit animal.posted by phunniemee at 10:14 AM on January 21, 2014 [5 favorites]

I just love this. She is so great.posted by rtha at 10:38 AM on January 21, 2014

There is a certain kind of politician/politician's spouse that might do a thing like this in a calculated, brainstormed, fully-vetted way in an attempt to humanize themselves and maybe get on the late-night talk shows.

I'm not sure exactly what it is about this video (and the Obamas in general), but there is 0.00% of that going on here.posted by Rock Steady at 10:40 AM on January 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

Also, while I know intellectually that she's tall, seeing Mrs. O next to Lebron, who is TALL, really shows how tall she actually is! Quite tall.posted by Mister_A at 10:42 AM on January 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

I’ve covered Michelle Obama for six years for the NY Times and written a book about her, and one of my earliest and most revealing clues about what she’s really like came when I interviewed her brother, Craig Robinson, in early 2007. This was a month after Barack Obama entered the race, before Michelle Obama had ever been attacked, before the PR folks and minders set in and those close to the Obamas grew less candid. Robinson described his sister, whom he was plainly crazy about, as warm, big-hearted and hilarious, but also forceful and highly opinionated—a Harvard-trained lawyer who could bore into you with her arguments and judgments.

“Everyone in the family is afraid of her,” he told me with a smile. When I asked him if Barack Obama used a nicotine patch to quit smoking, he cracked up. “Michelle Obama!” he said. “That’s one hell of a patch right there!”

When I interviewed Mrs. Obama a month or so later in Iowa, she was still pretty frank and mischievous. The whole family was walking through the Iowa state fair, a visit that produced cute pictures (they’re recycled to this day) but was pretty awful in real life: it was about 104 degrees, the Obamas were surrounded by a huge scrum of cameras, and forget the baby animals in the petting zoo—Malia and Sasha were the cute little creatures everyone was trying to see and touch. Mrs. Obama leaned over and whispered into my ear, deadpan: “This is not quality time.” She was blunt and funny with reporters back then: two years earlier, when her husband had been sworn in as a U.S. senator, she said to my former colleague Jeff Zeleny: “Maybe one day, he will do something to warrant all this attention.”

This is not the Michelle Obama we see or hear as first lady: we get a blander, more toned-down version of the real person, with rarely a glimpse of the strong opinions or naughty humor. Michelle Obama giving a speech these days is like an Olympic gymnast doing a floor routine: she’s practiced in advance, she executes with precision but no spontaneity, and the results are generally very impressive. This is part of the contradiction of the job of first lady: no president makes it to the White House without a canny, sharp wife, but once they arrive, the women are forced to recast themselves as helpmeets, disguising some of the qualities that made them such effective partners in the first place. (One Obama friend once told me that the secret to their marriage is that “those two never let each other get away with anything.”) Don’t get me wrong, the “mom in chief” persona is authentic, it’s just edited—it’s not the whole Michelle Obama.

The rest of Michelle Obama is still there, behind the scenes. In my book I explain why she was such a devastating internal critic of the early Obama White House—she saw, before nearly anyone else, that some very important things were going wrong. More recently, during the 2012 race, Democrats who know her were startled at the way she tore into Mitt Romney in private. Sometimes I hear about the jokes she makes about politics, but no one will ever tell them on the record—which kills me, because her jokes are not just entertaining but revealing.

Michelle Obama and her risk-averse strategy are huge successes: she’s one of the most popular political figures in the country, and as she’s frequently told aides, she never wants to attract negative attention that could hurt her husband’s initiatives. But I wonder if we will see a looser, more relaxed Michelle Obama after she leaves the White House, because in writing my articles and my book, I’ve consistently found that the real person is even more interesting (and magnetic, in a way) than the one we see on TV.

Watch in this clip yt for when she raises the roof at the Kennedy Center Honors concert while listening to Snoop Dogg rap to Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island".

I believe my exact quote when I saw this during the broadcast was "Can you imagine how horribly awkward this would be if literally anyone else in the country was First Lady?posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:51 AM on January 21, 2014 [5 favorites]

There is a certain kind of politician/politician's spouse that might do a thing like this in a calculated, brainstormed, fully-vetted way in an attempt to humanize themselves and maybe get on the late-night talk shows.

I'm not sure exactly what it is about this video (and the Obamas in general), but there is 0.00% of that going on here.

Please. This was totally staged and vetted. You don't get props near the Obamas without a Secret Service officer examining every inch of it. This wasn't some spontaneous event that just happened to get captured. It's obviously carefully planned and choreographed. If you think they went through that kind of effort without consideration on how it would play on Inside Edition then you haven't been playing attention to politics.

I love the Obamas as much as the next guy, but they don't do anything in front of a camera without examining how it will appear to the viewers.posted by cjorgensen at 10:56 AM on January 21, 2014 [5 favorites]

I’ve consistently found that the real person is even more interesting (and magnetic, in a way) than the one we see on TV.

I think that is true of virtually anyone public office. there are (plenty of) public or political figures I loath because of their public stance on xyz, and even (many) political figure I have been disappointed in because of abc, but oftentimes there is a small voice in the back of my head that says, "yeah but... I bet outside of office, away from the camera I'd wager they are a much more reasonable, interesting and thoughtful person."

(not all of them of course, there are plenty of public figures that I don't want within 100 miles of myself, and think they are likely rally just horrible people through and through)posted by edgeways at 10:57 AM on January 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

There is a certain kind of politician/politician's spouse that might do a thing like this in a calculated, brainstormed, fully-vetted way in an attempt to humanize themselves and maybe get on the late-night talk shows.

I'm not sure exactly what it is about this video (and the Obamas in general), but there is 0.00% of that going on here.

I think this might be a little naive really but far more importantly please try to imagine the Romneys doing something like this. Make sure you are not eating or drinking anything while imagining it because you will choke to death on your lols.posted by elizardbits at 11:04 AM on January 21, 2014 [34 favorites]

"yeah but... I bet outside of office, away from the camera I'd wager they are a much more reasonable, interesting and thoughtful person."

Truth. I went to school with a kid my whole life growing up who was a republican from the time he was conceived. Republican, republican, republican, that's all he ever did or knew. We haven't really seen each other since high school, but we met up briefly about 5 years ago when he happened to be in my city for work.

Talking to him, listening to the way he felt about things, I realized oh my god, he's not actually a republican at all and is in fact way more liberal. And I asked him about it, and as soon as I brought it up he retreated back to republican, republican, republican, peppered with all the most salient conservative sound bites. But then we'd start talking about stuff again and boom, no, actually doesn't believe any of those things that he parrots.

Now he's running for state government, obviously as a republican, obviously with the most I am a stereotypical Obama hating GOP member platform. I don't know if he's an idiot and doesn't actually realize that his personal ideologies aren't what he thinks they are or if he's being willfully deceptive or what. And all I can think is how many other politicians are like that?posted by phunniemee at 11:05 AM on January 21, 2014 [7 favorites]

This wasn't some spontaneous event that just happened to get captured. It's obviously carefully planned and choreographed.

No matter how much you try to disguise it, cynicism isn't the same thing as authority.posted by bondcliff at 11:06 AM on January 21, 2014 [4 favorites]

elizardbits: I think this might be a little naive really but far more importantly please try to imagine the Romneys doing something like this.

I don't think that everything they do is authentic and genuine, but I detect no artifice or calculation in this video in particular. It's possible that she is just that good at faking it, but I don't think the Heat are, and I know Spoelstra isn't.posted by Rock Steady at 11:17 AM on January 21, 2014

I mean obviously the skit was scripted and choreographed, clearly LeBron did not simply happen to be holding a toy basketball net at that moment, but it very much has the aura of people who are actually having fun, rather than the product of careful rehearsing with a director who had to tell Michelle Obama how an actual human being would yell after dunking on LeBron James.posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:20 AM on January 21, 2014 [38 favorites]

ALL the Bushs love Bill Clinton. Seriously, they do. B. Clinton hangs out with them a lot. You know how the Bushes have the habit of giving everyone nicknames? Know what Bill's is? "The brother from another mother".

I think the "everything is staged" argument is just second-order naivety and doesn't really hold up to scrutiny, since the marginal political returns on planning things to such an exacting level of detail would almost certainly be well into the negative. I think the truth of the matter probably more closely resembles code-switching than it does script-reading: a charismatic politician in the mode of the Obamas is one who constrains their personality for a given audience rather than their actions, which then enables their actions to be simultaneously authentic and expedient. There's nothing inherently disingenuous about that, and in fact I think that behavior is a foundational element of how we interact with each other.

In any case, I'm the sort of joyless asshole who thinks that personal sentiments should be ruthlessly excised to the greatest extent possible from our accounting of any politician who currently holds power, since it's so easy in humans for the warm feelings that arise from something like this to bleed over into other arenas that merit a more critical eye.posted by invitapriore at 11:27 AM on January 21, 2014 [9 favorites]

I don't think that everything they do is authentic and genuine, but I detect no artifice or calculation in this video in particular.

Really? To me, the clip comes across as about as natural and spontaneous as the banter of color commentators at a parade.posted by Shmuel510 at 11:53 AM on January 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

On Faux News this will become:

(a) First Lady, in display of bad sportsmanship, taunts others.
(b) First Lady disregards sanctity of the White House with something something.
(c) First Lady undermines U.S. beef industry.
(d) First Lady snubs baseball for new urban sports fad.
?posted by Fists O'Fury at 12:00 PM on January 21, 2014 [5 favorites]

Only tangentially related, but I hadn't seen this video of Wade and Lebron videobombing Chris Bosh before and it's hilarious.posted by kmz at 12:08 PM on January 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

On Faux News this will become:

(a) First Lady, in display of bad sportsmanship, taunts others.
(b) First Lady disregards sanctity of the White House with something something.
(c) First Lady undermines U.S. beef industry.
(d) First Lady snubs baseball for new urban sports fad.
?

And then LeBron appears behind Steve Doocy's stupid face holding a basketball hoop and Michelle dunks it, pushes The Dooce aside and gives the camera a big KABOOMposted by jason_steakums at 12:10 PM on January 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I guess Obama doesn't need Luther to translate for him anymore. Seems like Michelle is definitely up for it.posted by orme at 12:37 PM on January 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

It wasn't always thus

Guys you are not helping by pointing out my parents' Canada was cooler than mineposted by Hoopo at 1:16 PM on January 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

On Faux News this will become:

How bout we let the haters be haters and not put imagined words in their mouth.posted by aught at 1:21 PM on January 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

After all this time the infamous "whitey" tape has been found.posted by guiseroom at 1:31 PM on January 21, 2014

Guys you are not helping by pointing out my parents' Canada was cooler than mine

Well, when you're talking about Stephen Harper, that's a sadly low bar. Deifenbaker's Canada was cooler than Harper's.posted by dry white toast at 1:55 PM on January 21, 2014

This is the one and only First Lady who makes me smile every time I see her. I think if I was five I would want her to be my friend. The saddest thing about being Tea Party, I would imagine, after the loss of your soul, would be the inability to appreciate Ms. Obama.posted by angrycat at 2:03 PM on January 21, 2014 [4 favorites]

This doesn't need to be a derail, but please be aware that it's jarring and kinda icky to read for some of us.posted by stoneweaver at 2:04 PM on January 21, 2014 [6 favorites]

okay but imagine mitt romney dressed like larry bird do it

That would be basically the most human thing that Mitt Romney ever did and it would be frickin' hilarious.posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 2:16 PM on January 21, 2014

I mean this is perfect an all, but I can't help but think it would be perfect-er if they would've made Chalmers stand there and get dunked on by the FLOTUS.posted by DynamiteToast at 2:21 PM on January 21, 2014

Snoop Dogg rap to Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island".

That was Us3's "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)". Actually.

It's amazing how much of that verse I can recite off the top of my head, 20 years later.posted by asterix at 2:48 PM on January 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's amazing how much of that verse I can recite off the top of my head

They don't make 'em like that anymore, do they? "Jump to the jam boogie woogie jam slam."posted by Hoopo at 3:11 PM on January 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

This was totally a whole bit that the group of them worked out. Amount less awesome that reality makes this: zeroposted by dry white toast at 3:18 PM on January 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

That was Us3's "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)". Actually.

Do you still call it "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" if Snoop used the original Herbie Hancock instrumental but put his own lyrics on it? That's the only reason I credited it to the original Hancock song.

I'd love to like the Miami Heat. They seem to have an absolutely blast, they enjoy the game, they enjoy the lives they're leading, but, lord, I hate them. /Bulls fan.posted by Ghidorah at 4:11 PM on January 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

This isn't really in keeping with the fun and awesome lightheartedness of that clip, but I Blasdelb's quote made me think of a Guardian article I just saw:
Michelle Obama has tried to make a difference, mainly through campaigns about obesity and other social ills. But it is as a winner of "best dressed" and "most inspiring" awards that she remains well-known. In this sense, popular perceptions of what a modern first lady does are sexist and trite. Michelle dances, she sings, she cries in appropriate situations and she is a close confidante of Oprah Winfrey. Thus highly educated, talented women such as her are effectively told to suspend their careers to become state-sponsored ladies who lunch.posted by aka burlap at 4:11 PM on January 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'd love to like the Miami Heat. They seem to have an absolutely blast, they enjoy the game, they enjoy the lives they're leading, but, lord, I hate them. /Bulls fan.

I never thought I'd be able to stand them. But there's been a definite shift in LeBron's public interactions since he finally won a title and got the monkey off his back. He even swings into endearing occasionally.posted by dry white toast at 4:36 PM on January 21, 2014

Okay, I'm going to get "Heat" for this (sorry, had to). Really, this is, to me, extremely immature and unbecoming of the FLOTUS. I can't even imagine Jackie O, Ladybird, Pat Nixon, Rosalynn, Nancy, Barbara, Hillary, Laura - any FLOTUS doing this.

I can't help but think of Neil Postman and Amusing Ourselves To Death. Everything has to be funny, cute, amusing, entertaining, silly, immature, or any combination of the above to attract attention.posted by Gerard Sorme at 5:39 PM on January 21, 2014

I think that's the point. Pat Nixon? Nancy Reagan? Barbara Bush? Laura Bush? What positive thing can you say about any of them short of "Well, they didn't go postal on that classroom of third-graders..."?

While the Obamas are calculators--although perhaps not on the scale of the Clintons, who are I Claudius-class connivers--FLOTUS has enough charm and charisma to convince almost any audience outside of a Focus on the Family convention that she is just as you see her. And she may be. But, really, you'll never know.

I'm just glad she's charming and smart and a good role model. Because the previous models have pretty much been Librarian Laura, who kept her mouth shut, or, on the veep side, Lynne Cheney, the madwoman in the attic who had to be gagged for eight years.posted by the sobsister at 6:00 PM on January 21, 2014

I mean really FLOTUS shouldn't be some on-a-pedestal thing. We need to get beyond consigning people to such narrow roles as what we seem to be locked into.

and a spot on nutrition? I guess Obama could have just looked into the camera and said "kids, eat your veg now you here" that would be covered and talked about I am sure.

I'm not really giving you HEAT, just kinda disagreeing that we need to be so hidebound into traditional roles, infini save us from yet another cookie recipe spouting FLOTUS,posted by edgeways at 6:52 PM on January 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

Ray Allen is money on NBA 2K14. And, you know, in actual life.posted by Mister_A at 6:55 PM on January 21, 2014

I really ought to hate the Heat, especially as a fan of a team that's gotten absolutely owned by them in the Big Three era (76ers represent!), but damn if it isn't infectious to watch the fun that they are clearly having by being so ridiculously good at basketball.

If they had been just a little bit taller, they too could have been a baller.posted by srboisvert at 5:29 AM on January 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

Perhaps we should pick our presidents by a sport like chess-boxing mixed teams. The Obama's would still have beaten McCains on both categories, the physical category would have gone to Barack over Mitt I think the chess category might have been closer as long as Romney didn't sacrifice all his pawns in a fit of affuenza spite, Michell would mop the floor opposite Ann in both areas.
The Biden's might have had a physical defeat with the Palins and perhaps the Ryans, but would have dominated in the chess part as I suspect Sarah would have stuck the pieces up her nose, her husband would have tried to kill a wolf from a helicopter with the pawns, Ryan would have lied about his results and who the hell knows what his wife would have done as she was near invisible.posted by edgeways at 1:39 PM on January 22, 2014

Do you still call it "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" if Snoop used the original Herbie Hancock instrumental but put his own lyrics on it? That's the only reason I credited it to the original Hancock song.

The us3 version was actually played live by the group for their record, and is a different arrangement. It "samples" the Hancock tune and the tribute was for Herbie but the lyrics and arrangement are from us3. So, well, whatever :)posted by cell divide at 1:59 PM on January 22, 2014

Edgeways,

I've always thought we should pick our politicians thru trial by combat. That would prune the number of politicians on a regular basis. Voters could choose the type of weapon.posted by Cog at 5:07 PM on January 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah, to echo above, the full video makes it very clear that this is "staged", in the same way that a commercial is "staged" or a trailer is "staged". She's promoting a program and made a funny video to promote that program.

People are responding to it, though, in the same way that people respond to well-executed commercials. There's something about the naturalism, the ease, and the humor that transcends the staging. LeBron James in the background having Michelle Obama's back and just cutting down his teammate before striding off is hilarious. Michelle Obama sticking around to woo and woo is even better. It's very hard to teach that kind of comfort and seeming spontaneity in front of a camera. People who I know to be very eloquent and thoughtful speakers nonetheless sound stilted and somewhat feigned when a mic appears in front of them.

No, LeBron didn't suddenly and magically have a handheld hoop just as Michelle had a plush basketball just as the Heat were visiting the White House just as they were being interviewed on camera with a suspicious amount of background room. If your impression is that the video is trying to sell you on how you don't have to be crazy to work at the White House, but it helps!!!, then yeah, I guess I can understand the dismissal. But otherwise, I don't get it.posted by Errant at 3:11 PM on January 23, 2014

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